GF2045: Brains, avatars, androids, and the future of humanity

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This past weekend in New York arguably the most important conference of the year, Global Future 2045, was held. This might sound like an overstatement but no other conference exists that states grander goals, and then tries to chart the path to those goals through science.

The researchers who have courageously aligned themselves with those goals in the face of many who would try to detract from them deserve kudos for their work. Even so, not every talk was immune to logical criticism — like the idea that transferring even a perfectly transcribed connectome to an avatar would create an identical consciousness, for example — but contrary to what now only the fearful might presuppose, it is not a fetish, or a mental disorder, to have a desire to live and grow beyond the brief term that you were given.

It is perhaps just a little unfortunate that mind uploading to a machine took center stage this year, at the expense of more biologically-oriented mind preserving efforts. That it did so may be only because of some of the tremendous advances we have recently witnessed in creating life-like avatar copies. Although the avatar for the main organizer of the conference, Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov, was not quite ready for the show, that of famed designer Hiroshi Ishiguro was on display.

The questionable avatar route to post-biological bliss has gained a bit of credence, in the eyes of some, through the attendance of the proud owner of one of the most successful cyborg arms available today. The “terminator arm” in the video above has a surprising range of grips and motions that are presently controlled only through the signals extracted from just a couple of muscles in the arm.

A few comments, and sometimes a lack thereof, from a couple of the fairly big names in hard scientific research suggest that there is still some confusion in the air about what happens, or rather doesn’t happen, when a perfect copy of a brain is theoretically produced. Only through soft, fuzzy thinking could one arrive at the conclusion that any kind of “transfer” of consciousness would be fundamentally different from a destructively made copy. If a copy of you is pinched, you don’t flinch. That is OK though — there is no single prophet and that was a key point of the conference. There are many paths to future and the only wrong path is the one not explored.

Many proponents support various mind and body preservation concepts, and they are truly noble and humane efforts. Considering the alternatives, any form of structural preservation — crystal-controlled freezing, vitrification, or plastination — would be preferable to decay six feet under. While these provisions would make for a great physical sidekick to any electronic legacy, ultimately, next to the singularly-expanding individuals still alive, these endearing remnants would persist only as amber-encased flies in a museum cabinet hoping to regain what they have lost, but unable to ever catch up. The only viable path then to longevity, is continuity through preservation and expansion of existing living tissue, and augmentation through merger with machine component.

Realization of this goal is an open-ended invitation to those inclined to follow. On the individual scale the problem is making it to 2045 (or thereabouts), but on the global scale, the challenge is getting things in order from a humanitarian perspective in the limited amount of time before reality begins to explode.

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We can’t feed, clothe, and shelter the 6+ billion people on the planet now, or even the 310+ million in the US. Do you really want to live in a world where immortality is for sale?

Joe

The main reason we can’t feed everyone is because we waste too much money on war, instead of actually helping people. If people don’t age, I think that would make war essentially nonexistent, because instead of risking losing maybe 50-60 years of your life by being killed in war, you are risking a seemingly infinite amount of time.

I think when immortality becomes a reality, it will either make the world an infinitely better place, or it will completely destroy humanity. People will hopefully be more apt to think ahead to the future, instead of only focusing on the short term, and I hope that this will eventually mean a much better future.

Scott Jackson

Knowing I will only live 50-60 more years doesn’t make me any more apt to put my life in danger than if I knew I was going to live forever, so I don’t really see how that will change people’s willingnes to go to war.

Joel Detrow

Here’s the thing. If you know you’ll live forever, never aging, you’ll have no problem with slowly working towards a better life for yourself, others, or the planet, because you’ll always be around to reap the benefits. If I was immortal, I’d have no problem taking a few hundred years to learn everything there is to know before finding a career or a lover. People go to war because they feel that is their best or only option. Immortality removes the need for war because it offers (with time) a certainty that an individual can accomplish their goal, rather than a vague chance, as is the case with war.

Think of how much wisdom is in the mind of a mere octogenarian. Imagine that much wisdom in almost every man and woman who walks the planet. How could that lead to anything but peace? Besides, in such a world where mortality is what one makes of it, I’m sure suicide would simply be a choice freely made when an individual feels they’ve done all they wanted to do, or becomes utterly bored of everything life has to offer (because they’ve done it all). An episode of Star Trek: TNG explored this eventuality through the Q.

Don Clark

Immortality will never be accomplished in or for this society, this world is on a fast track to destruction, the government is mocking God in many ways, Sodom and Gomorrah mocked God…he destroyed it. Jesus Christ WILL return soon to destroy this society world over and all it’s Evil, those who accept him as their Lord and Savior now will live in the new world here on earth renewed as immortals, to teach the still surviving people who have not accepted him, to accept him, peace will reign for a thousand years, then Satan will be allowed to appear for the last time to deceive the unsaved people, he and the unsaved people will be destroyed in hell in the battle of Armageddon!! It’s in the bible. IT WILL HAPPEN!!!!!

Joel Detrow

They said man would never fly, too, (also citing their opinion of God’s intent) and look what happened? Airplanes.

The best way to learn about God is not through a book passed down by fallible men, but by learning about His creation, this earth and universe, chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology, etc. The magnificence and majesty of this universe demonstrates God’s power, and the chemical complexity in life demonstrates his intelligence. These are things everyone can know for sure, that if a God exists, these are traits he definitely possesses.

Fanaticism of any kind, you should recognize, is bad. Fanaticism leads to war, motivates men to murder or take advantage of their brothers, and creates inequality.

Don Clark

At this point…it does not really matter about everyone in the world getting fed because the Elite (The people who actually run things in this country and the world) have a plan that will be carried out to reduce the worlds population to only 500 million! You got that right, true story. Research this, check out the Georgia Guide Stones, it tells all about this there.

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